Paraphrased:
A Stuttgart company, Optronic, through a North Korean middleman tried to deliver 22 tons of aluminum tubes for enriching uranium. This could have made 400 centrifuges. The boss of the Stuttgart company has been arrested.
The freight was to be delivered to the Chinese airplane builder Shenyang. North Korea was the true addressee, suspects the German government.
The German government denied the deal, but the goods were loaded on the French freighter "Ville de Virgo" on April 3 in Hamburg. When the German government learned of the ship's journey they intervened in Paris. The captain was informed and the container was unloaded in Egypt.
Opteron's boss denies the charge. His lawyer said the boss didn't want to close the deal after the government had stepped in, but surprisingly a Hamburg company called and said it would take over the export.
"Spiegel"..Atomschmuggel-Verdacht gegen deutsche Firma
longjack